Follow:
Topics:
Browsing Tag:

Kristin Hannah

    Reading Wednesday

    Book Review The Women by Kristin Hannah

    June 26, 2024
    by
    /
    Leave a Comment
    /
    2 Comments

    Kristin Hannah has become a powerhouse of strong female character novels, and her latest, The Women continues that theme. I have both loved and liked her work over the years, but my favorites have not always been her top sellers. For instance, I didn’t love The Four Winds (a huge success for her), but I really liked The Great Alone, not as popular as The Four Winds or The Nightingale. But all that said – I have a new favorite. Here is my book review The Women by Kristin Hannah.

    1960’s

    Hannah places the reader in the idyllic California community of Coronado, where we meet Frankie (Frances). Frankie and her brother Finn have grown up with conservative parents, and a patriotic, traditionalist father. The family is so proud of Finn when he heads off to serve in Vietnam. Frankie finds herself at loose ends after Finn is gone…wondering what is next for her? Her mother is pushing Frankie towards marriage but Frankie can’t see herself in that role.

    At Finn’s going away party Frankie meets handsome Ry who ventures to say to Frankie a life changing sentence – “Women can be heroes too”.

    Vietnam

    Frankie impulsively joins the Army Nurse Corp. Her father is livid, her mother furious. And then, Finn is dead. The whole beautiful world comes tumbling down, and Frankie is off to Vietnam, not able to get out of her commitment; scarred, grief-stricken, naive.

    The Women

    This is a story about the women of Vietnam. The nameless, faceless heroes – forgotten. The nurses who made it possible for so many male soldiers to return home. The women who witnessed as much carnage, death, chaos and trauma as any man on the front. Hannah does a wonderful job pulling into focus this part of the Vietnam story that most people didn’t know then, and still don’t know today.

    The Women by Kristin Hannah follows the lives of not only Frankie, but her friends Ethel and Barb, as each deals in her own way with the country they return to after their tour of duty. A country torn in two by war, politics and lack of respect for those who served.

    Book Review The Women by Kristin Hannah

    I really enjoyed this book, learned a lot, felt great empathy for the characters and loved the story line. One of my favorite Kristin Hannah books to date. Thanks for reading my book review The Women by Kristin Hannah. By the way, the Afterwards by the author was also intriguing so don’t skip that.

    *****Five stars for The Women by Kristin Hannah. Read last week’s book review After Annie by Anna Quinland

    Want to read another great book about a different kind of female character navigating Vietnam in the early 60’s? I loved Absolution by Alice McDermott.

    We love it when you share, pin and comment on our book reviews. Thank you.

    Share:
    Leave a comment
    Reading Wednesday

    Book Review The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah

    April 28, 2021
    by
    /
    Leave a Comment
    /
    0 Comments

    We listened to several audio books while on our recent road trip through the southwest USA. This new release by Kristin Hannah was one of them. I struggled to enjoy the voice of this audio book, but in the end I enjoyed the overall story. Here is my book review The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah.

    This is the story of the dust bowl and the migration to California and those who suffered through it, those who survived it, and those who didn’t. But Hannah is no Steinbeck, so don’t expect Grapes of Wrath here. It is however a touching story, and in true Hannah form, a story of women who endure the unimaginable for their families and what they believe.

    We are introduced to Elsa, a young women who has been coddled by her wealthy family her entire life after being a sickly child. Elsa’s family expect her to live her life as a spinster, refuse her hopes of college and rarely even let her leave the house. By age 25, she has no self-confidence and no future. And then she meets a younger man whose family is from Scilly and soon is pregnant with his child. Elsa’s reputation- obsessed Texas family disown her and she is literally left on the doorstep of the Italian speaking family whose son gives up college to marry her.

    This is certainly not a good way to begin a marriage, and you can only imagine how things develop, particularly as crops dry up and fail, drought takes over the land and Texas becomes a dust bowl.

    Elsa will find herself abandoned and alone with two young children looking for a new life in California, with thousands of other families just like her. When she becomes involved with a movement for better conditions for workers things get both complicated and dangerous for Elsa, her family and all the downtrodden, starving and destitute depression era laborers.

    Although there was much of this book I found weak, and I disliked Elsa’s character in the beginning, she definitely grows throughout the book and finds her voice in the end. I might have liked the book better if I had read it instead of listened to it.

    If you are a Kristine Hannah fan you won’t be disappointed. I hope you enjoyed my Book Review The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah.

    ****Four stars for The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah

    Read last week’s review of News of the World by Paulette Jiles

    My current read The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christi Lefteri

    This week’s top performing Book Review Pin is Ordinary Grace.

    Thank you for pinning and sharing our book reviews.

    Share:
    Leave a comment